FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 29 
possessed certain acres of land in addition to the croft in which 
his dwelling was placed, but these acres were distributed in strips 
in the common fields and were not grouped together as they are 
to-day. The fields were cultivated generally in sets of three, in 
one of which early crops were raised, in another autumn crops, 
whilst the third lay fallow, and in each of these the tenants’ strips 
were distributed. Much of the land held by the lord was also 
distributed in the same manner, his strips being mingled with 
those of the tenants in the common fields. From Lammastide 
(1st August) the fences which divided the strips were taken down 
and the whole field regarded as common property for grazing, etc., 
until the next ploughing time, the crops being varied each year 
for each field. In some manors the fields were managed on a 
two-field basis, one arable, the other pasture. 
Outside the whole was the waste of heath and uncultivated 
land, upon which all holders of land within the manor had the 
right of pasture for their cattle and flocks according to the size 
of their holdings, and also the right of cutting furze, etc., for fuel. 
The soil belonged to the lord, but he could not enclose it if any 
damage was done thereby to those who had the ‘right of 
common,” as it was called. In Lewisham there were two large 
tracts of waste, Blackheath and Westwood at Sydenham. 
Our knowledge of Lewisham when the manorial system was 
in full working order is derived from the early records of the Court 
of the Lord of the Manor and his Rent Rolls. Those which 
survive are in the Public Record Office, and no doubt became 
part of the public records when the manor came to the crown on 
the suppression of the alien priories. The Court Rolls preserved 
commence in 1284, the twelfth year of the reign of Edward I, and 
they cover parts of the reign of that king, of the reign of 
Edward II, a few years of Edward III, and part of the reign of 
Henry V. They thus give us a series of peeps at Lewisham for 
a period of 140 years, and enable us to see something of the life 
and local government of the place. Incidentally they throw much 
light on the place names of the parish, so familiar to us to-day 
that it comes somewhat as a surprise to find how ancient some 
of them are. Could a Lewisham man of the 14th century revisit 
the old scenes he would truly recognise nothing, but were he 
spoken to of Brockley, Stumps Hill, Court Hill, Eastdown, 
Sydenham, Catford, Shroffold, and other places within the 
borough, he would soon feel that he was on familiar soil, for the 
names were as much household words to him as they are to us 
in the 2oth century. 
The earliest of the rent rolls is undated, but seems to be of 
the time of Edward II. It gives the small money payments 
made by the various free tenants in Lewisham in lieu of the 
personal service exacted in earlier times, or the rents which were 
agreed to on the creation of a new homestead from the waste. 
The manor was divided into two ‘‘burghs”—Northburgh, which 
